TUC leader Frances O’Grady was talking about the ficional TV show Downton Abbey and was about to mention the fictional book Bridehead Revisisted when the BBC interrupted her culture review for breaking news that Kate Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant.

TV crews set up their cameras in front of Kensington Palace, London, the official residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after the announcement that the Duchess is expecting their second child.

KATE Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, is pregnant with her second child. The media reacts:

The Times:

The spare is on its way. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their second baby, it was announced today in a public statement that came close to repeating the drama of the news of her first pregnancy two years ago. Once more the Duchess is suffering from acute morning sickness – and once more the couple have been bounced into revealing the news earlier than they would have liked.

Thousands of supporters for national unity gather at the Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec, across the Ottawa river from Parliament Hill, Sunday October 29, 1995.

IN 1995, Canada was saved from destruction by the desperation of Canada’s prime minister, Jean Chrétien, and a sudden and passionate mobilisation of the “No” vote. The country voted. And Quebec would not leave Canada.

But it was close. The “No” campaign won, but only by a small margin — 50.6% to 49.4%.

Her Majesty The Queen had been worried, commenting, “It sounds as though the referendum may go the wrong way”. We know she said that because her telephone conversation with a radio DJ pretending to be Chrétien was broadcast to the nation.

WHAT are we to make of the news that Prince Charles likened Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler? Charles didn’t make his views known in a public address. He was, as the BBC put it, “privately conversing” in Nova Scotia, Canada, where one day he hopes to be head of State. Charles told a woman whose relations were murdered in the Holocaust: “And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.”

“We are seeking clarification [from the FCO] at a working level. It’s not clear if it is an official position. The response from Clarence House is it was a private talk. We hope there is nothing behind it. But it is unclear to us: what does it mean? He is the future king, after all… It is very serious. Every family in our country lost someone in that war.”

These articles – except the bullet-holed diary – were found by police in the possession of Ian Ball, 26, who pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to attempting to kidnap Princess Anne, attempted murder of two police officers and wounding two civilians. The diary belonged to shot PC Michael Hills, with the bullet that pierced it still lodged in his liver. On the table are handcuffs, two pairs of which are locked together to provide leg shackles, keys for the handcuffs, gloves worn by Ball during the incident, six spent rounds, three live rounds and 39 spares for the .22 gun and a .38 Astra with five spent rounds and 19 spares. Date: 22/05/1974

ON March 20, 1974, Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace along Pall Mall in their Rolls-Royce, driven by Alexander Callender. Rowena Brassey, the Princess’s Lady-in-waiting, was sitting in the car across from the Princess. Next to her was Anne’s armed bodyguard, Inspector James Wallace Beaton.

At the wheel of his Royal Rolls Royce in the royal mews of the Palace of Holyroodhouse is Alexander Callender, of Edinburgh, who has been 20 years in the royal service as a chauffeur. He won the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for his part in protecting Princess Anne during the attempted kidnap of Princess Anne by Ian Ball. Date: 05/07/1974

Another car approached. This white Ford Escort forced the Roller to stop by blocking their route. A man got out. He was Ian Ball, 26, an unemployed labourer from north London.

He had two guns. He fired six shots at the Princess’s car. He shot Beaton on the shoulder.

Ball then rushed to the Rolls. He tried to open the rear door, where Anne was still seated. Anne and Captain Phillips held it shut. Brassey crawled out the other door. Beaton crawled back in. Ball fired. The bullet hit Beaton’s raised hand. Ball shot Beaton again.

Callendar got our the car. He confronted the gunman. Ball shot him in the chest. Ball now managed to prise open the rear door. He grabbed Anne’s arm. Ball addressed her:

“Please, come out. You’ve got to come.”

Phillips took hold of her. The men pulled. Anne’s dress tore.

Seven men came to the aide of the Princess.

Among them was tabloid journalist, a former boxer, two chauffeurs and three policemen.

Sun journalist Brian McConnell, 46, was shot in the chest by Ian Ball during the fired by Ian Ball during the attempted kidnap of Princess Anne in Pall Mall. Date: 20/03/1974

PC Michael Hills, 22, heard the shots and attended. He was hit in the stomach. Hills radioed for help.

Ronald Russell, a company cleaning executive, was driving home from work. He saw the commotion. He’d seen Ball shoot Hills. Russell, a 6’4” former boxer, advanced on Ball. Russell would later say:

“I pulled over and heard a lot of banging and smashing which I thought was the general rumpus. But then Ball shot a policeman, and I thought ‘that’s a liberty, he needs sorting’.”

The kidnapping was not going to plan.

A second chauffeur, one Glenmore Martin, now parked his car in front of Ball’s rented car.

Sun journalist John Brian McConnell had been following in a taxi. He got out. He told Ball:

“Don’t be silly, old boy. Put the gun down.”

Ball shot him.

As Ball made once more for the Princess, Russell punched him in the back of the head.

Ball ran around the car towards the princess, she jumped back in with Phillips, shutting the door. Ronald Russell then punched Ball in the face. He said:

“Ball had a gun at her head. I lent in to the car and said ‘come this way Anne, you’ll be safe.’ I pulled her out and held her in front of me. Ball got behind me, and I thought ‘if he shoots me in the back it won’t hurt as much’. I turned and we were face to face. He was pointing a gun at me. I hit him fair and square on the chin. He went down and police were everywhere.”

Peter Edmonds, a temporary detective constable, gave chase. He tossed his coat over Ball’s head, rugby tackled him and made an arrest.

Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, Sir Robert Mark (r) talks with the three police officers who are to receive bravery awards for protecting Princess Anne during the attempted kidnapping by Ian Ball. (l-r) PC Michael Hills receives the George Medal, Detective Constable Peter Edmonds is awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal and Princess Anne’s bodyguard, Inspector James Beaton is awarded the George Cross. Date: 05/07/1974

A wounded man is carried into the waiting ambulance

Soon after attempted kidnap of Princess Anne, police officers search among the daffodils blooming at the side of the Mall.

Ball had rented the escort.

When searched, police found the haul you see in the first photograph above: handcuffs, Valium, a ransom letter addressed to the Queen – he would demand £2 million in £5 notes, the money stuffed into 20 unlocked suitcases and sent by plane to Switzerland.

The Royal car in which Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips had been travelling in when it was stopped by bullets in a kidnap attempt on the Princess in Pall Mall, London. Date: 20/03/1974

Journalists scrambled to pull together theories on how a mentally ill, unemployed man could have masterminded a well-funded kidnapping attempt on his own. An office clerk told a reporter that the police had traced a typewriter that Ball had rented to write the ransom letter. Papers reported that one line of the letter read “Anne will be shot dead.” Days after the kidnapping attempt, a group calling themselves the Marxist-Leninist Activist Revolutionary Movement sent a letter claiming responsibility to The Times of London. Scotland Yard dismissed any connection between that group and Ian Ball. Others recognized a familiar theme in the reported content of the ransom letter, in which Ball had allegedly stated that he would donate the Queen’s ransom to the National Health Services. One month before, a group identifying as the Symbionese Liberation Army had kidnapped Patricia Hearst. In its communication with the Hearst family, the SLA said that they would return the young woman if her family donated what would amount to millions of dollars of food to hungry Californians.

Princess Anne chats to her wounded bodyguard, Inspector James Beaton at Westminster Hospital. Inspector James Beaton was injured during Ian Ball’s attempt to kidnap Princess Anne in Pall Mall.Date: 25/03/1974

A Scotland Yard picture of Police Constable Michael Hills, a 22-year-old bachelor living at Croydon, Surrey, who was on duty outside St James’s Palace when he heard a gun fire. He was wounded in the chest as he approached gunman Ian Ball and collapsed after using his personal radio to report: “I have been shot”. PC Hills joined the Metropolitan Police ‘A’ Division at Cannon Row last may, straight from training school. Date: 21/03/1974

Ball was tried.

A closed police van, with Ian Ball inside, arrives at Bow Street Court. The unemployed 26-year-old, of no fixed abode, was charged with attempting to murder Princess Anne’s bodyguard, Inspector James Beaton, in Pall Mall.Date: 21/03/1974

Ball told the court:

“I would like to say that I did it because I wished to draw attention to the lack of facilities for treating mental illness under the National Health Service.”

Ball admitted to attempted murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to a life term in a mental health facility. He would end up in Broadmoor, the high-security psychiatric hospital.

Ball was prosecuted for the attempted murder of the princess’s detective, and various offences under the Offences Against the Person Act, but he was not, perhaps surprisingly, charged with treason; threatening the life of, or kidnapping, the Sovereign’s daughter with the intent of extorting money from the Royal family is not treasonable in the absence of an actual violation.

Ronald Russell was decorated for valour, the Queen pinned the George Cross medal to him and said:

“The medal is from the Queen of England, the thank you is from Anne’s mother.”

“It’s fair to say that if anyone was very intent on wiping one out it would be very easy to do.”

Earlier she had said:

“It was all so infuriating; I kept saying I didn’t want to get out of the car, and I was not going to get out of the car. I nearly lost my temper with him, but I knew that if I did, I should hit him and he would shoot me.”

PRINCE William has told the Guardian’s reporter (and others): “Why don’t you put your notebook down and give us a hand with the sandbags?” Wills and Prince Harry have been moving sandbags in flood-hit Datchet, Berkshire.

The reporters said they would help. But Royal aides said they could not because of their ‘inappropriate clothing’.

FLASHBACK to August 5, 1953: Exiled Egyptian King Farouk strolls in the sun by the swimming pool at singer Gracie Fields’ restaurant, Canzone del Mare, on the Isle of Capri, Italy. King Farouk and his family spent time as guests of the British star. With Farouk is his wife, Queen Narriman, their young son, the new King Ahmed Faud II, and three daughters of Farouk from a previous marriage. (AP Photo)

CHERYL Cole has ago but role of “nation’s sweetheart”. But now thank to Max Clifford Solution, you can hark back to those halcyon days of Princess Diana and Jade Goody in “Together Forever” – features “two Princesses from opposite side of the track, joined forever in happiness in the hereafter.

“From the authentic matchplay-grade table tennis table, to the bats backed with genuine dimpled rubber, to the intricately sculpted angel wings, every details of this collectors’ heirloom figurine is designed to give you joy”

PRINCE William, needed only an A, B and C in his A-levels to get into Cambridge University Normally the University requires an A* and two As. But the Prince is not normal.

All the pretence that he is – the middle-class accent, calling people “guys” and not “serfs” and showing us pictures of his baby (so very Facebook) are just sops to the saps. The boy’s a toff.

Mary Beard, Cambridge University’s Professor of Classics, says Wills should use the jaunt to mix with the riff-raff, telling the Daily Mail: “I very much hope that he will take the opportunity to meet some of our more ‘ordinary’ students, struggling with making ends meet, worried about careers, future and debt.”

WHAT did the Royal Family look like 100 years ago? 1913 was the year before the war to end wars. Were those halcyon days? No.

Women wanted a better deal. In June 1913 Emily Wilding Davison dashed in front of the king’s horse at the Epsom Derby in the name of women’s suffrage. Four days later she died. One month later, 50,000 women massed in Hyde Park, London organised by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. They would shot Herbert Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister, how many women wanted the right to vote.

Sparks were flying in Europe.Lenin and Trotsky were talking of revolution as they toured Europe. At once point, Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin all lived in one corner of Vienna.

Empires were on the wane. Nations were the future. Australia and India wanted to move away from Britain. There was turmoil in Ireland. Workers united to push back the drowning tide of grinding poverty in a strike that would become the Dublin Lockout.